Carolina Herrera / Resort 2014

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“Prints, that’s what this collection is all about, prints,” said Carolina Herrera as a preface to her 2014 resort presentation. “And seasonless,” she added, “because there are no real seasons for clothes anymore; in summer somewhere it’s winter, or in winter somewhere it’s summer. It’s important everything can be worn all year round.” Out of this straightforward inspiration and rather sensible directive Herrera spun a deliciously pretty and elegant collection which played to her strengths as a source of impeccable dress-up clothes (but more on that later). Her resort was delightful in its deployment of pattern, with flowers conjured up out of her imagination and not as nature intended them, scaled upward and downward with wild abandon over everything from palazzo pants (they’re back! It’s certainly been a long time since I typed those words) to evening dresses whose skirts, cut in square panels of floral tissue organza, trailed dramatically like the wake of a ship cutting through water.

Her resort also conspired to advance what might think of typical Herrera-isms re embellishment, with a drop-dead gorgeous black silk sinuous long skirt and matching blouse whose organza sleeves were worked with a rubberized—yes, really—ivory appliqué embroidery, while the shoes were rendered in a mix of leather and clear plastic, an idea that has been quickly gaining traction this resort season. And there was an effortless quality to the clothes, from the notion that many things that looked like dresses were actually two pieces and could be separated, to their weight, which as Herrera promised, was lightness itself. Even her tweedy suits and sheath dresses had an airy quality to them, as evinced by that time-honored method of empirical research on any showroom visit—a quick lift off the rack and twirled around the hangar to gauge their heft. All of this would be appealing to pretty much anyone, but perhaps particularly to Herrera’s new die-hard fans in Singapore. She recently took a trip there and was blown away to see so many of her women in the grandest evening looks worn during sunlit hours. Clearly, any time of day is as much a consideration for some as any time of year.